abbotsford parish church@clydebank@scotland

temple

ack

It's like a huge party Passover. Can you smell the air and hear the sounds of the city? There's pitta bread cooking on open fires in the street mixed with the smell of rich spices from exotic places as lamb is roasted and fat sizzles with rosemary and tumeric and coriander. What a wonderful aroma! People are singing and dancing, bells ring and little cymbals clanging as people move about. And Jesus storms into the Temple Court. From a distance it looks as if there is a small disturbance; some kind of fighting going on. Distant crowds see what they think is a plume of dust but it is cages of doves flying open as Jesus swipes at them and merchants dive to protect themselves and their merchandise. But Jesus just ignored them all, ripping open the woven baskets letting white doves make their escape in mini explosions of the brightest light. His eyes are bloodshot red. His hair is flying and he rampages. There's sweat running down his face. His tunic clings to his body in the hot anger of his flaying in this personal riot. As woman scream and people run, he turns from the dove sellers to the money boys, taking a kick at one table sending it tumbling. All the little neat piles of gold coins cascade, lolloping through the heavy atmosphere. Like slow motion they spin through the air, light catching their colour as they twist and turn through the light beams, little rings of golden fire. Suddenly he stops and stands still. In a circle of broken furniture and wrecked economy he stares like a madman at everyone eyeing him. As he breathes heavily, spit flies from his mouth and in the silence, broken only by someone chasing a liberated pigeon and one or two coins still rolling, he shouts with venom: 'My house is a place of worship! You've turned it into a hangout for thieves!' And he turns and leaves as quickly as he arrived. People shake their heads and begin clearing the war zone thinking to themselves: 'Isn't he the one known as the Prince of Peace!'.     Copyright: R Hamilton 1998

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